Odder: An Otter's story by Katherine Applegate illustrated by Charles Santoso

Many older readers will have met Odder via the verse novel with the same title by Katherine Applegate. That book has 270 pages. It is fairly easy to read because of the format but the intended audience is readers aged 9+.  Now we also have Odder: An Otter's story which is a picture book for readers aged 5+.  Huge thanks to University of Queensland Press for sending an advance copy.

Look at the cover of this new picture book - it is sure to appeal to all young readers. How can anyone resist this sweet little sea otter - she seems to be looking straight at the reader on the cover inviting you to explore her story. Then there is the added bonus that this book is a based on a true story. Children are always fascinated by true animal stories. Odder: An otter's story is a book you should certainly consider adding to your school library collection. Older readers might like to borrow the verse novel and the picture book. I would be keen to display them side by side in the library. Reading a verse novel can be quite an emotional experience. It is so impressive that, even with the pared back text, Katherine Applegate gives her readers of this picture book version beautiful insights into the emotions of little Odder.

I did a brief comparison of the two texts - of course the picture book story is very much abridged. 

Verse Novel:

page 23 "Her mother called her 'Odder' from the moment she was born. Something about the way the little pup never settled, something about the way her eyes were always full of questions."

Picture Book:

page one "They call her 'Odder' from the moment she is born. Something about the way the little pup never settles, something about the way her eyes are full of questions."

Odder is saved by humans, they teach her the skills her mother would have passed on about swimming, and grooming and eating crabs. Eventually Odder is released back into the ocean but sadly she is attacked by a shark. Luckily, she survives and is rescued again.

"This time, though, she will never go back to the ocean. The shark bite has forever changed her. She can no longer move the way she was meant to move. She can no longer play the way she was meant to play." 

But there is something important Odder can do. Another pup has been rescued. The little pup is so helpless.

"Little one,' Odder whispers, 'I will teach you how to crack open crabs, and fluff up your fur, and use your tummy as a table.' ... 'But most of all, silly minnow, I am going to teach you how to play."

Bookseller blurb: Meet Odder, the Queen of Play! She twists, darts, weaves, and rolls, leaving frothy trails behind her. Why just somersault when you can triple-doughnut? Why dive when you can dazzle? Odder spends her days playing underwater and learning from her mother, until a storm changes everything and she is rescued by humans. Based on Katherine Applegate's bestselling novel, this lyrical story, inspired by a true programme pairing orphaned otter pups with surrogate mothers, explores resilience, healing, and the vital role of play through the eyes of one of nature’s most beloved creatures.

In the US this picture book is published by Macmillan. 

I previously read and loved Odder - the verse novel. It spent over 52 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Now University of Queensland Press have acquired the rights to Odder - the picture book edition.  Here is a quote from their Instagram page:

UQP is thrilled to announce that we've acquired the picture book edition of ‘Odder: An Otter's Story’ by Newbery Medallist Katherine Applegate, illustrated by Charles Santoso. Adapted from the middle-grade verse novel of the same title, the story follows a playful sea otter pup named Odder whose life is turned upside down when she is separated from her mother during a storm. It is a poetic and heartwarming tale of resilience, healing and wildlife conservation.⁠ UQP has acquired ANZ rights and will publish in May 2025.⁠

US cover

In my blog post about the original verse novel I said: The character of little Odder is sure to linger with you long after reading this warm-hearted story. I think this book would be terrific to read aloud or you could give it to any animal lover aged 9+. One powerful aspect of this storytelling is the way Katherine Applegate uses point of view. As a reader you really are right inside the head, heart and eyes of the young otter called Odder.

Here is the UK cover of the original verse novel:

UK cover

You are sure to be familiar with other splendid books by Katherine Applegate - if you click on the label assigned to this post you can read many of her other books.

Wishtree

Click here for a link to my blog post about the books in the Ivan series

Dogtown (book one); Mouse and his dog (book two)

The Kindness Project by Deborah Abela

This is perhaps a minor aspect of The Kindness Project but the teacher has such a powerful role in the lives of the four children who you can see on the cover of this new verse novel. She sets an assignment.

"Each term
we do a class project.

This time Ms Skye says,

'We're doing a project

to change the world.

It's called

The Kindness Project.'

Ms Sky is the BEST teacher

and it think it's great that

she wants to change the world

but doing it with a school project

is a BIG ask. 

Ms Sky says

we need to aim HIGH

and that big changes

come from small beginnings

and that just because we're small

doesn't mean

we can't make a difference."

The school project is one thing but setting up the groups of students who will work together is an even bigger issue. Ms Sky uses a Harry Potter-style sorting hat. She picks Nicolette first, then the new boy named Leaf - Nicolette is not sure he will want to work with her - she has no friends in this class. 

"I feel like there's a manual

for making friends

and it was handed out to everyone

except me.

Maybe mine was lost in the post

or someone got two by mistake

and that's why 

they have so many friends

and get invited to parties

and seem to know

how to talk to each other

at lunchtime

or during sport

or when you're suddenly

put in a group

with kids who don't like you"

Then Ms Sky pulls out Layla. She is one of the cool kids. And finally, it is DJ. Oh no he is the class bully. He is so mean. He has called Nicolette Knickers since Kindergarten. Everyone is frightened of his anger and vicious taunts. 

What these four kids don't know is that each has a deeply personal back story. As they come to trust each other these four stories will form the basis of their class project. 

Nicolette is the narrator of this story so it is her story that we explore the most deeply. She visits her grandmother in the afternoons at an aged care home that Nanna calls Alcatraz. The way lines of this verse novel say so much about this dreadful place - "dry cake"; "a nurse with a bushranger beard and a grey uniform ... talks over her"; "He clangs the metal dinner tray on the bedside table"; "the food is brown and lumpy like carrots floating in mud"; "He pours her a tea that looks like grey dishwater and pats her on the arm like she's a puppy."

When the teachers sets the class assignment Nicolette thinks of all the people who have changed the world - Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai. For some reason which I didn't quite grasp she also lists Roald Dahl. But for Nicolette, her Nanna is the real hero!

Huge congratulations to Deb Abela on writing a verse novel - the world needs more of these - especially by Australian authors. 

Here is an interview with Paperbark Words. She says:

I’ve written 30 books, all in prose, but this novel demanded to be written in verse, which I’ve never done before. I’ve always LOVED verse novels, but I kept thinking, ‘I can’t write in verse! I have no idea what I’m doing’. Having written for over 20 years, I know I have to trust the process. So, I tentatively began writing in verse and found it freeing and fun! Not only did it force me to get to the point more quickly, it was exciting to play with form, fonts, font size and verse length, which together, create the feel and meaning of the story. The Kindness Project is my first verse novel, but hopefully not my last. 

If you are thinking this book sounds incredibly serious…yes, the themes and situations are serious: dementia, grief, breakdown of family, mental illness, feelings of abandonment, trauma, loneliness, hyper-anxiety. But there are also moments of levity as Deborah skilfully lightens the tension ...  Just So Stories

Here is an link to an audio interview with Deborah Abela. 

This is a beautiful story told in verse. With wonderful characters, it is very relatable and has strong themes of friendship and family throughout, lots of fun and laughter, as well as a few tears. This is Deb Abela at her very best and will be a story you remember long after you finish reading. I loved it. Lamont Books (this book was a title in their Primary standing order). 

Here are some other favourite verse novels for readers aged 10+. You can search for the title in my side bar or just select the label verse novel. I think verse novels can be an ideal text to share in a school library with a group of senior students because they are short, and you can pop one or two powerful text samples on your screen for all the class to read.

One more comment about Verse Novels. I was chatting with a well known Sydney bookseller recently and she said a poet had visited her store (I have no idea if he or she was a children's poet or one for adults) and they complained that verse novels were not real poetry! Such a strange comment. What do you think - please add a comment to this post. 

The relationship between Nicolette and her precious grandmother also links with this book I read this week (for ages 11+) - I'll Keep you Close by Jeska Verstegen. This one is not a verse novel - it is a biography/autobiography centered on a child who is making discoveries about her family and the holocaust. 

Australian Verse Novels National Centre for Australian Children's Literature

You may already know I adore verse novels (click the link from my sidebar). I am not sure which verse novel was my first taste of this genre but I do know we produce some truly excellent examples of this form here in Australia. When a verse novel appears on an awards shortlist such as the CBCA Children's Book of the Year I always cheer. In 2021 we had two verse novels on the CBCA short list (Younger Readers) Bindi by Kirli Saunders and Worse Things by Sally Murphy and in 2020  Little Wave by Pip Harry was the winner! See below for links to my review of each of these.

Why do I champion verse novels?

• Verse novels are a wonderful demonstration of the power of words 
• In a verse novel words, often single words, are the heroes
• One word or a tiny text fragment in a verse novel can say so much
• They are easy to read aloud
• They are perfect to read aloud in library sessions
• Verse novels often contain very, very emotional stories but this is often balanced with humour
• Verse novels are perfect to share with all readers
• Reluctant readers will be rewarded when they read a verse novel and discover it is easy
• I love the way verse novels contain so much white space 
• Verse novels are truly page turners

In past years I have shared many verse novels with groups in my school library. Titles such as Sister Heart by Sally Morgan; Farm Kid by Sherryl Clark; Pookie Aleera is not my Boyfriend by Steven Herrick; Tom Jones Saves the world by Steven Herrick and Motormouth by Sherryl Clark.

In more recent times I have loved reading Bindi by Kirli Saunders; Bully on the Bus by Kathryn Apel; Too Many friends by Kathryn Apel; Mina and the whole wide world by Sherryl Clark; Are you there Buddha? by Pip Harry; The Little Wave by Pip Harry; Zoe, Max and the Bicycle Bus by Steven Herrick; Worse Things by Sally Murphy; Footprints on the Moon by Lorraine Marwood; and On Track by Kathryn Apel. 

The Australian Verse Novels Database prepared by NCACL has been created with such care and a wealth of detail. This will be a very welcome resource for teachers and Teacher-Librarians. If you work in a school I suggest you might like to print the collection flyer to share with the staff on a notice board. Teacher Librarians could also use this list for collection development. 

Here is a page of links to the two sets of book lists - for younger readers and young adults. 

Each title includes:

• The full publication details 
• Annotations
• Readership level
• Themes
• Awards
• Australian Curriculum links 
• Hyperlinks to free resources available on the web, with additional material about the creators, interviews, teaching resources and more. 

Have you heard of The National Centre for Australian Children's Literature -  NCACL?  

Here is a quote from their website: NCACL or the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature  has a comprehensive collection of material about Australian children’s literature. The collection has books, artwork, ephemera and author and illustrator research files. The National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature Inc is the premier national institution that collects, documents and promotes Australian children’s literature and ensures this national heritage is publicly available and shared with future generations.

The collection includes over 46,000 books.  Some 4,300 of these books are in overseas translations in 66 languages. 

• You can see more on YouTube
• Follow NCACL on Twitter
• Or read more on Facebook

Everywhere Blue by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz

Yesterday I listed all the books (well nearly all) the books on my January to read pile. I know yesterday and today are officially really December but I have already begun and have finished two of the books! Yes I did say two.

Everywhere Blue is a new discovery and it is a verse novel and yes you do already know this but, I need to say it again - I love verse novels. They are fast, the are emotional, they are often very insightful and they are always so satisfying. If you are ever in a reading slump I highly recommend finding a verse novel (it's okay there are some written for adults too). 

Madrigal, you could be a metronome. You're so precise. ...

Mr Rimondi is the only one who uses

my real name.

Everyone else calls me Maddie,

except Aria calls me Mad

and Strum calls me M.

They both hate the musical

names our parents gave us.

But I like them.

They define us as a family

even if sometimes

there is dissonance.

There are some things we can take away from this text quote. Maddie lives with her musical parents and older brother and older sister. Maddie takes music lessons - she plays the oboe. This book is filled with musical references and references to classical music (I loved that part).

The dissonance is between Strum, aged 18, and his father. Strum is deeply concerned about our planet and about our human impact and of course about global warming and climate change. His dad thinks all of this is nonsense and to make things worse he seems to impose unfair rules on the family.

Maddie has a brilliant mind. She is in Grade Seven but attends a Grade Eight geometry class each week on a nearby campus. Maddie also has ambition. She wants to play the oboe solo at the upcoming concert but she is only second oboe and it seems Oliver, first oboe, will be the one to play the beautiful music from Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev. With all the turmoil around her Maddie is anxious and her anxiety can be seen from her obsession with numbers. There are safe and lucky numbers and numbers which mean everything is sure to go wrong. Maddie is a counter (I am a counter too). She counts steps, and floorboards and really anything as a way to calm down. 

Maddie compulsively counts objects and believes that even numbers are the best. She is a gifted math student who appreciates order and regularity, eating the same precisely prepared sandwich for lunch every day. Kirkus

After her oboe lesson her mum usually picks her up but today it is her sister Aria and she has some bad news. Strum is missing. He has walked away from his university and no one knows where he has gone. Over the coming weeks Maddie watches her family disintegrate. 

Music mentioned in this book. I suggest listening to these while you read this book:

• Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev
• Morning Mood from the Peer Gynt Suites by Edvard Greig
• String quartet No.2 in D Major by Alexander Borodin
• Adagio for strings by Samuel Barber
• Largo from Symphony No.9 by Antonin Dvorak
• Nutcracker suite by Tchaikovsky
• Rhapsody in Blue by George Geershwin
• Bolero by Maurice Ravel
• Ode to Joy from Symphony No.9 by Beethoven

I highly recommend Everywhere Blue especially for sensitive readers 10+ who enjoy verse novels and stories filled with genuine emotions. I really like the cover by Elena Megalos but it does slightly puzzle me. Strum loves butterflies and you can see they are part of the illustration. Maddie plays the oboe - yes it is there too. Strum is missing and that feels like a chasm in Maddie's life I guess and we can see a boy with a backpack striding away to a remote place. But why is there a guitar? I guess because you strum a guitar and it matches his name? Blue is Strum's favourite colour. The sadness of his loss is making the world feel blue.

This book has several awards:

• An NCTE Notable Verse Novel
• A Mighty Girl Best Book of the Year
• A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
• Cybils Award Poetry Winner

I am very keen to share some companion books to go with Everywhere Blue. You could click Verse Novel in my sidebar but I really want to tell you about another book where the main character counts things as a way to cope (this is probably Counting by 7s but I am not entirely certain - my memory is of a middle grade book where the girl counts things including the bristles on her toothbrush) and also I need to mention a book I read quite recently about an absent brother - The collected works of Gretchen Oyster.

I also recommend these books which are filled with music:

Just Dance

Fly Away

The Flying Orchestra

The View from the 32nd Floor 

(this is long out of print and the cover is not especially appealing 

but I highly highly recommend this terrific book for so many reasons! 

My post has a comment by the author)

The Way of Dog by Zana Fraillon

"They say Cats have nine lives.

What I'd like to know as I tumble through the Sky

is how many lives do they say

a Dog has?"

Scruffity is being held in a concrete cell. He is just a pup and has been recently separated from his mother. There are nine pups in this small space. Then there are eight, seven, six and so on until Scruffity is left all alone. The owner of this ugly and dangerous place is an angry and violent man but luckily there is a boy who shows kindness to the pup. In fact he gives Scruffity his name and later, thank goodness, his freedom. But freedom comes at a price. It is dangerous in the city. The boy and his dog are now on the run. 

There is an accident and the boy is injured. Now Scruffity is on his own trying to understand and survive in the world of shoe-legs. All he has is the wisdom of the ages - the ways of dog from ancient times. 

"Dear Shoe-Legs

Are you coming? Are you? Are you?

Then shake wide awake and take my advice

throw the Burs from your fur and 

sliiiiiide on the Ice.

Come flat-foot follow and paw-pad on my way

for a I have thing

or four

to say about living this live according to

The Way of Dog."

I marvel at the way an author's brain works. The verse novel style of this book is so powerful. Every word is used so skilfully.  This is one of those special books that I would like to put into the hands of adults (and I seem to meet them regularly) who are utterly incredulous and sometimes also very negative about my passion for children's books. I am certain reading The Way of Dog would 'blow their mind' and demonstrate that the best children's books are for everyone!

This book is both a harrowing one and an uplifting one. Some pages are so hard to read but I knew I was in safe hands with this author and that she would protect Scruffity and hopefully help him find his true forever home. I highly recommend this book for readers aged 11+.

Here is some dog wisdom from this book:

"Meat is A Very Magnificent Thing. The Way of Dog is Meat."

"The Way of Dog is MyManpup"

"Run! The Way of Dog is to Run. Run. RUN!"

"To Dig is most definitely a Way of Dog too."

"The Way of Dog is to keep our shoe-legs safe."

In just one month the Children's Book Council of Australia will announce their notable titles for 2023. I am going to make a firm prediction that The Way of the Dog will be a notable title and from that list of around twenty titles, this book will go on to be short listed - one of the six top titles and in August, when the Younger Readers category winners are announced, I expect this book to be (fingers crossed) the winner!

Here is a review by a Primary school student.

What is outstanding about this engaging and emotional story is the visceral muscular poetry, crackling with energy, zooming all over the page. Fraillon captures the energy , the bounce and pounce of a young puppy, but also the loneliness and longing for family that is shared by both man and dog. ... This is the best verse novel I have read in a long time and I hope it wins every prize in the children’s literary universe. Mia Macrossan Storylinks

'Prepare to have your heart smooshed in the best possible way in Zana Fraillon’s tender and gritty The Way of Dog (UQP)...Fraillon’s unique verse novel zings with energy as she skilfully plays with language in a way that gives voice to Scruffity. His joys, losses, fears and hopes are all vividly conveyed thanks to Fraillon’s gift with words, and Sean Buckingham’s evocative illustrations. The Way of Dog has dark moments, but it’s a story that will warm readers’ hearts, not break them'  (The Sydney Morning Herald)

I think the verse novel (form) works well for something like this, because I can imagine animals might have these sorts of processes – the simple language, how they view humans as ManPups and Girlpups, what they think of what we do, wear, and the places we live – it’s their interpretation, the way they put the words they know together. It is these aspects that makes Scruffity such an engaging character – I didn’t want to leave him, because I had to know what he did next. The Book Muse

After reading The Way of Dog look for these other books with stories told from a dog's point of view:

I, Cosmo

The sequel is Everything for a Dog

For a younger reader Spunky tells all. 

For a younger reader age 6+ Choosing Crumble

Young adult novel Good Dog (contains violent scenes)

If you are not afraid of books that explore violence against dogs (for mature readers) you could also look for these:

Shiloh

The Truth as told to Mason Buttle

The one thing you'd save by Linda Sue Park illustrated by Robert Sae-Heng

 

Here is a book I was very keen to explore because:

• The title made me curious
• The cover is filled with interesting objects
• It's by Linda Sue Park - I am a huge fan of her work
• AND bonus - this is a verse novel or perhaps a better word might be novella (it is quite short at 65 pages)

Here is the school assignment:

"Imagine that your home is on fire. You're allowed to save one thing. 

Your family and pets are safe, so don't worry about them.

Your Most Important Thing. Any size. A grand piano? Fine."

And one more thing as our first narrator explains "Ms Chang says we don't have to write anything down, just think about it so we can discuss it with everyone."

I should also add this class has a lovely motto

WE PROTECT, AFFECT, RESPECT ONE ANOTHER!

So what do the students elect to save?  As you would expect in a verse novel there are poignant things; funny things; personal things; and some practical things.  Linda Sue Park takes her reader on a emotional journey as each student explains their choice. You can see some of these on the front cover.

You will want to share this book with a class. Here are a set of discussion questions from the US publisher HMH Books. Here is the web site for UK based illustrator Robert Sae-Heng. Here is a video where Linda and Robert talk about their book (49 minutes). Listen to an audio sample. For an Australian audience there are some possibly less familiar references in this book such as famous baseball players but this is one of the things I love about sharing children's books - all the incidental learning about other cultures and the lives of other kids from different families living in different circumstances. I do need to add, sadly, that here in Australia this slim book is very expensive ($29) but perhaps one day a paperback edition will be released. If your budget allows - The one thing I'd Save would be an excellent addition to your verse novel collection.

It’s impossible not to feel a sense of renewal from this thoughtful book. BookPage

Park’s extended rumination has the power to bring us home. Kirkus Star

Linda Sue Park is the USBBY nominee for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award along with illustrator Kadir Nelson.

The poems in this book are written using a Korean poetry form called sijo.

Sijo is similar to haiku, a traditional Japanese poetic form, because they both have a fixed number of stressed syllables in each line. Sijo has 3 short lines or 6 long lines. But instead of focusing on nature themes, like haiku, Siju poems always have an ironic, unexpected twist in the last line. Great Kids Books

Linda Sue Park had explored this form in a previous book which is illustrated by Istvan Banyai (I love his book Zoom and the sequel Re-Zoom):

If you wanted to explore another verse novel with voices of students try to find The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary: 

And Pookie Aleera is not my Boyfriend and other books by Australia writer Steven Herrick.

What Snail knows by Kathryn Apel illustrated by Mandy Foot

Lucy has her dad. Her dad is a very private person. He tells Lucy not to talk about the way they live.

"It's just you and me, Lucy,' ...

Dad said the same thing he'd said

every 

time we'd

moved 

before.

'It's just you and me, Lucy. We 

don't need nobody else."

This text fragment comes from the first two pages of this gentle verse novel. In just two pages we learn Lucy has no mother but we don't yet know what has happened. We learn Lucy frequently moves to new schools but we don't know why. We learn Lucy only has her dad - there is no extended family. We learn that perhaps there is not much money because they only have their old brown car.

Later we learn mum has died and dad has built himself a protective shell to keep others out. But things are about to change. Lucy finds her first new friend - a little snail in the garden of the caravan park where she and her dad live in an old, battered caravan. At her new school, Lucy also makes another friend and in her new class, the teacher is simply wonderful. But poverty makes things hard.

That wearing

someone else's

faded old uniform

and shoes

with their stains 

and smells

makes me

want to crawl inside

a shell ...

Then something goes badly wrong. It can no longer just be Lucy and Dad. Others can help. Others will help. Her dad just has to say yes. 

As with all verse novels, there is a raw emotional edge to this book. Your heart will break for Lucy but it will soar when you read about the kindness she encounters from her new friend Tahnee, from Tahnee's mum, from the caravan park owner Mei Hui and from her teacher. 

The children in Lucy's Year Two class are working on a helpers project. They begin with helping at school; then helping at home (they keep a tally sheet of tasks); the children learn to cook a simple pie to share with their family; then the project extends to clearing up rubbish in the community; and finally everyone joins in with catching cane toads - "You catch. We kill ... kindly."  I love the way Kathryn Apel has added the theme of community action but in a really gentle and natural way as a perfect outcome from the class project which the teacher, the aptly named Miss Darling, has carefully designed. 

Here is a mystery. I regularly watch Colby Sharp from Michigan in America sharing the opening of hundreds of parcels on his YouTube channel. I am SO envious. Publishers send him such treasures. Last week I had a notification from the Post Office that a parcel was coming. Have you guessed? Yes it was a book and yes it was a free book and yes it was an advance copy from a publisher - so exciting and even better news this is a verse novel (you know I love them) and it is S P L E N D I D!  So huge thanks to UQP (University of Queensland Press) and whoever it was that put my name on their mailing list. The dedication lists our IBBY Australia President so perhaps that is who I need to thank.

What Snail Knows will be available on 1st March, 2022. I strongly suggest you add it to your shopping list right now. This book is a perfect package - it has an inviting cover, soft pencil drawings by Mandy Foot scattered throughout and the verse novel format makes this book easily accessible for readers aged 8+. Here is a set of really good teachers notes (but if I was still in my school library I would just put this book into the hands of a sensitive reader rather than dissecting is as a class novel).

If you want to explore the theme of poverty with a younger class my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything has a Pinterest of books linked with the Sustainablity Development Goal One - No Poverty. Here are some other verse novels for younger readers that I highly recommend:

Mina and the Whole Wide World

Blue Daisy

Little Dog, Lost

Where I live

Applesauce Weather

Pearl verses the World

Too Many Friends

Meet the author Pip Harry

Image source: 2014 interview with Kids' Book Review

This week I attended a local library conference, and the after-lunch speaker was Pip Harry.  I have previously talked about quite a few of her books and in this post, I can share some news of her new titles coming out later this year and next year. Here is her Instagram page. 

Are you there Buddha?

August and Jones

The Little Wave

Pip saw some children at South Curl Curl beach here in Sydney and she found out about 

Stewart House and this gave the idea for this book. 

As a child this was the beach where I swam with my parents. 

Here are a few things I discovered about Pip Harry:

• Many years of her childhood were spent in Singapore and later at a girls' school in Melbourne
• As a child she moved a lot and so is familiar with the complexities of fitting in
• Her books explore big themes - change, loss, grief, trauma
• Her early career was writing for magazines such as Women's Day and New Idea
• Magazine writing taught her about deadlines and developed her own curiosity about people
• She also learned how to think on her feet
• In her early 20s she wrote a novel but it was not accepted by any publisher (she tried 23).
• At age 35 she started writing again and Pip Harry also went back to night school to study creative writing and she found a group of other writers who supported her work
• She writes to make sense of the world, to process situations and relationships
• The blue cover of August and Jones was not intended to link with the US Classic Wonder by RJ Palacio

There was one more thing Pip Harry mentioned that I have been pondering. She said in journalism it is important not to 'bury the lead' and that has helped with her writing for children but oddly I am not so sure about this. I adore books where the plot line slowly unfolds - where you are NOT told everything up front but have to do the 'hard yards' and read the whole book to discover the 'truth' or the solution to the mystery and so on.

Here are her first three books:

Read this interview where Pip talks about this book.

Shortlisted - CBCA Book of the Year Awards 2018
Shortlisted - Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2018
Shortlisted - Queensland Literary Awards 2018

Here is a 2017 interview where Pip talks about this book

Coming next from Pip Harry:

• Picture books - Over and Under (with Hilary Jean Tapper from New Zealand); The Inside Dog; and The Goodbye Tree.
• Junior novel series - Camp Spook: Attack of the Aliants written with Kate Foster.
• A young adult verse novel called Drift.

Pip Harry likes the form of the verse novel (so do I) because

• you need to strip away all unnecessary words
• highlight imagery
• they accesible to all readers especially reluctant readers
• the offer a fun way to play with words

Pip mentioned the wonderful NCACL verse novel database. Check out this link and this post. 

Pip Harry is SO lucky - she will visit Milkwood the farm owned by Sophie Blackall for an author/illustrator retreat. Here are some photos of previous events at Milkwood. Hundreds of people apply to attend these events each of which have a different focus. See all the wonderful books by Sophie Blackall here. And check out all her photos on Instagram. 

Residencies are designed for writers, illustrators, and researchers who want to get sustained, uninterrupted work done. You might work at the desk in your room or at the communal table in the two-story library, in the light-filled Calf Barn studio or the cavernous hayloft, on a sunny balcony or under the shade of the open-air barn, or in any number of secluded nooks and corners. 

One more thing ... As usual I didn't gather enough courage to personally speak to Pip Harry but I was thrilled when she said she now lives in the suburb of Sydney where I grew up!!

After six years abroad, Pip recently returned home to Australia and now lives on the beautiful Northern Beaches of Sydney. Pip works as a copywriter for a non-profit in the youth homelessness sector and has three picture books coming out soon. When Pip isn’t scribbling, typing or reading, she loves to swim in the ocean, wander along bush tracks and eat ice-cream.